13 posts from July 2011

Jul 31, 2011

Meanwhile, Hussein Rashid, a lecturer and a Muslim activist in New York, regrets that not many Muslim leaders have emerged lately. He believes it is because Muslims are not good at telling their stories.

“I am insulted that local TV news crews are now calling this kind of storm a haboob,” Don Yonts, a resident of Gilbert, Ariz., wrote to The Arizona Republic after a particularly fierce, mile-high dust storm swept through the state on July 5. “How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?”

One of the great wonders of the medieval world is a very tall, heavily ornamented minaret nestled in a green valley at the edge of the Jam river in what is now Afghanistan. Often called the Minaret of Jam, the monument was almost a millenium ago illuminated by a torch at its top, and surrounded by a thriving town with small industries and outlying farms.

What's remarkable is that the writing on the minaret and archaeological remains nearby strongly suggest that the city harbored a population of Muslims, Christians and Jews. Writing on the minaret is a detailed transcription from the Koran that celebrates the life of Mary, mother of Jesus, highlighting the connections between Islam and other religions. Nearby there is a Jewish graveyard, which is another hint that people of different religions were living peacefully together. Was this lost city once a bastion of medieval tolerance?

Jul 27, 2011

On August 2, the Abu Dhabi Gallup Center will host the launch of Muslim Americans: Faith, Freedom, and the Future. Based on three years of research and hundreds of thousands of interviews, the new study explores Muslim Americans' political, social, and spiritual engagement a decade after 9/11, and concludes with evidence-based recommendations for government and civil society leaders. The report discusses U.S. Muslims' views on a range of topics…

Ramadan, which begins with a sunup-to-sundown fast Monday, calls on the Muslim faithful to immerse themselves in scripture — ideally by reading the entire Quran.

In 2009, Hussein Rashid, a professor of Islamic Studies at Virginia Theological Seminary, noticed rabbis using Twitter to highlight snippets of Torah text to celebrate Shavuot, when Jews say Moses received God's word at Mount Sinai.

"I saw they were creating a virtual way to pray and study together, and I thought it would be fun to invite a few friends to tweet the Quran for Ramadan. By the next year we had hundreds posting at #Quran and it will be even bigger this year," he says.

Jul 26, 2011

Our Better Angels: Resources for the Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11
Texts, Talks, Music from the three-part series exploring
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Traditions on
Tragedy, Mourning, and Healing.

Jul 25, 2011

Ramadan is back. Time to talk about tweeting the Qur'an again. Last year's thoughts and rules:

Traditionally, Muslims read the Qur'an in its entirety over this time, in a section a day. The Qur'an is split into thirty sections, called juz', and one section is read each night. This year, I have been thinking it would be fun to tweet the Qur'an for Ramadan. Coincidentally, Shavuot came, and several people I follow on Twitter tweeted the Torah. Since that experience seemed to be successful, it further cemented my belief that this would be a good idea. Some guidelines for tweeting the Qur'an:

Anyone is welcome. You do not have to be Muslim.

The point is to provide greater access to the Qur'an, so please tweet in English, regardless of the language you read in. Multiple language tweets are welcome.

You should tweet verses that appeal to you each night, not the entire juz'. Some of you may wish to do the whole juz', but the idea is that we find comfort in the word of God, and we approach it and understand differently every time we come to it. Each night, there are certain verses that will have more power/resonance. Simply tweet those.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington, DC. It often seems hard to believe that it has been that long. So much has changed, and yet for many, the reminders of that day are ever present. We must remember those who died, pray for peace and healing, and reflect on the challenges that have arisen over the past ten years: American use of torture, two wars, and rising anti-Muslim sentiment. There is no right or wrong way to remember, and each community’s needs are different.